Swedish court upholds Assange detention order

By MALIN RISING, Associated Press
| 2:27 a.m.Dec. 2, 2010

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2010 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks during a news conference in London. The lawyer for Assange says that the decision to add the 39-year-old Australian to Interpol's most wanted list shows that his client is being persecuted. Media lawyer Mark Stephens says Assange and his attorneys have not been provided with any information beyond what has been reported in the press about the sexual misconduct case against him in Sweden. (AP Photo/Lennart Preiss, File)
— AP

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2010 file photo, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks during a news conference in London. The lawyer for Assange says that the decision to add the 39-year-old Australian to Interpol's most wanted list shows that his client is being persecuted. Media lawyer Mark Stephens says Assange and his attorneys have not been provided with any information beyond what has been reported in the press about the sexual misconduct case against him in Sweden. (AP Photo/Lennart Preiss, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2010 file photo, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange takes his seat during a news conference at the Geneva press club in Geneva, Switzerland. The lawyer for Assange says that the decision to add the 39-year-old Australian to Interpol's most wanted list shows that his client is being persecuted. Media lawyer Mark Stephens says Assange and his attorneys have not been provided with any information beyond what has been reported in the press about the sexual misconduct case against him in Sweden. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)— AP

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FILE - In this Nov. 4, 2010 file photo, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange takes his seat during a news conference at the Geneva press club in Geneva, Switzerland. The lawyer for Assange says that the decision to add the 39-year-old Australian to Interpol's most wanted list shows that his client is being persecuted. Media lawyer Mark Stephens says Assange and his attorneys have not been provided with any information beyond what has been reported in the press about the sexual misconduct case against him in Sweden. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)
/ AP

People watch a television broadcasts program regarding WikiLeaks memos about Pakistan's nuclear program at a local electronic shop in Karachi, Pakistan on Wednesday, Dec.1, 2010. Once-secret U.S. diplomatic memos reveal Western concerns that Islamist militants might get access to Pakistan's nuclear material and American skepticism that Islamabad will sever ties to Taliban factions fighting in Afghanistan.(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)— AP

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People watch a television broadcasts program regarding WikiLeaks memos about Pakistan's nuclear program at a local electronic shop in Karachi, Pakistan on Wednesday, Dec.1, 2010. Once-secret U.S. diplomatic memos reveal Western concerns that Islamist militants might get access to Pakistan's nuclear material and American skepticism that Islamabad will sever ties to Taliban factions fighting in Afghanistan.(AP Photo/Fareed Khan)
/ AP

STOCKHOLM 
Sweden's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a court order to detain WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual molestation.

The 39-year-old Australian, who denies the accusations made by two Swedish women after his visit to the country in August, had appealed two lower court rulings allowing investigators to bring him into custody and issue an international arrest warrant.

He has not been formally charged.

WikiLeaks has angered the U.S. and other governments by publishing almost half a million secret documents about U.S. diplomatic relations and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The search for Assange, whose whereabouts is unknown, was stepped up Wednesday as Sweden confirmed it had issued a European arrest warrant for him. Since leaving Sweden, the computer hacker has appeared in Britain and Switzerland but disappeared from public view after a Nov. 5 press conference in Geneva.

He has spoken publicly only through online interviews and WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said late Wednesday the organization was trying to keep his location a secret for security reasons. He noted commentators in the United States and Canada had called for Assange to be hunted down or killed.

Britain's The Guardian, which helped broker the original WikiLeaks dump of Afghan intelligence files, has said Assange is hiding out in southeastern England. The paper did not cite a source for its information and Scotland Yard has declined comment.

Swedish police on Thursday said they would refile the European arrest warrant after police in Britain said certain specifications were missing.

Police spokesman Tommy Kangasvieri told local news agency TT the British wanted Sweden to specify the maximum penalties for all three crimes Assange is suspected of, and that will now be done.

The Supreme Court in Stockholm only reviews cases that are of importance for the interpretation of Swedish law or in exceptional cases where circumstances merit such a review.

It said it saw no reason to review the Assange case and upheld the detention order. The previous court order had stated that Assange is suspected of rape, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of unlawful coercion.

Various Swedish prosecutors have previously disagreed about whether to label the most serious charge as rape.

The details of what happened between Assange and the women aren't clear, but a police report obtained by The Associated Press says both women spent a night each with the Australian during his visit to Sweden and filed their complaints together a week later.

According to Assange's British attorney, Mark Stephens, the basis of the allegations seems to be a "dispute over consensual, but unprotected sex."

Stephens on Thursday said he would challenge any eventual British arrest warrant in court.

"The process in this case has been so utterly irregular that the chances of a valid arrest warrant being submitted to me are very small," he told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview.

Stephens, a prominent British media lawyer who also represents the AP, said he wasn't prepared to detail the nature of any possible legal challenge as he had yet to be served with a warrant.